Animal Architects
Feb. 20th, 2025 09:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ysabetwordsmithAnimals as architects of Earth: First global study reveals their surprising impact
From beaver dams to termite mounds, research uncovers the extraordinary role of animals in shaping our planet.
Animals are not just inhabitants of the natural world -- they are its architects. A new study has revealed how hundreds of species shape the landscapes we depend on, from vast termite mounds visible from space to hippos carving drainage systems and beavers creating entire wetlands.
I'm not sure why anyone would find this surprising, as some of the landscaping is really obvious (e.g. beaver ponds, buffalo wallows, termite mounds). Some are more subtle, like how elephant footprints create puddles that some other species rely on. And sometimes the effects are indirect but dramatic, like the reintroduction of wolves in Yellowstone reshaping the river -- because the wolves made the deer haul ass out of the valleys, so the deer stopped eating everything in sight, so the banks stabilized. Plus beavers moved in to eat all the new tree saplings, and then did their own pondscaping.
Anyhow, watch for ecosystem engineers in your area and support them if you can. Even the smallest yard can support ants, who do hella gone more work than most humans notice; and cicadas, whose tunnels route air and water deep into the ground.
From beaver dams to termite mounds, research uncovers the extraordinary role of animals in shaping our planet.
Animals are not just inhabitants of the natural world -- they are its architects. A new study has revealed how hundreds of species shape the landscapes we depend on, from vast termite mounds visible from space to hippos carving drainage systems and beavers creating entire wetlands.
I'm not sure why anyone would find this surprising, as some of the landscaping is really obvious (e.g. beaver ponds, buffalo wallows, termite mounds). Some are more subtle, like how elephant footprints create puddles that some other species rely on. And sometimes the effects are indirect but dramatic, like the reintroduction of wolves in Yellowstone reshaping the river -- because the wolves made the deer haul ass out of the valleys, so the deer stopped eating everything in sight, so the banks stabilized. Plus beavers moved in to eat all the new tree saplings, and then did their own pondscaping.
Anyhow, watch for ecosystem engineers in your area and support them if you can. Even the smallest yard can support ants, who do hella gone more work than most humans notice; and cicadas, whose tunnels route air and water deep into the ground.
(no subject)
Date: 2025-02-21 06:34 am (UTC)While beavers must build a dam and a lodge to have their young in, isn't that what homo sapiens does? Perhaps our ways are more complex, but that's just a larger, neurally denser processor holding more concepts, rather than the simple energy efficiency of a beaver's CPU.
Chimps make tools, they discard the after use, but don't humas do the same, only with greater complexity?. The big cats divide labour like humans did before settled agriculture. Most pets stay with their people out of choice.
And most gob smacking recent realisation of this train of thought to me? Research last year from the UK that found individual bees may actually be sentient. Mind blown.
Because, if the peer review stands up, to my decolonising frame of mind, that means everything "above" bees must be. Everything, and maybe even some "below" bees.
I treat the family cat with equity, because Marzi ("Marzipan, The Great Wanderer, First of her Name") is most definitely my equal, and probably higher in the day to day orders of business, as far as Linda is concerned :-)
(no subject)
Date: 2025-02-21 05:43 pm (UTC)